Unchecked immigration harms black Americans, House panel told

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By Lesley Clark
McClatchy Newspapers
May 9, 2007

WASHINGTON - T. Willard Fair and his assertion that unchecked immigration is harmful to American blacks took a battering at a House panel Wednesday, but the Miami civil rights leader who has joined a movement that wants to cap immigration declared his "mission accomplished."

That is, Fair said, a House committee heard testimony from him that African-American males are being squeezed out of jobs by a rising tide of immigration.

"There's no doubt about it, in Miami, that as the number of legal and illegal immigrants rise, prosperity drops in our community," Fair, chairman of the Florida Board of Education and president of the Urban League of Greater Miami, told a House Judiciary subcommittee.

His testimony came as Republicans complained that they were not allowed to call their own witnesses at an immigration hearing last week.

Fair, who appears in newspaper ads sponsored by the Coalition for the Future American Worker, which wants to reduce legal and illegal immigration, came under withering criticism from two Democratic black congressman on the committee, who said other factors are more to blame for a high unemployment and incarceration rate among young black men.

"You have chosen to pick the most divisive ... frankly, the most corrosive position," Rep. Artur Davis, D-Ala., said to Fair. "My concern is ... `us against them' politics is not in the interest of racial minorities."

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., said he had a difficult time finding work as a black male, "but in 2007, to be told it's the immigrant's fault, I just don't buy that," Ellison said.

But after the hearing, Fair said he was pleased to get a conversation started.

He said he planned to meet Thursday with other members of the congressional black caucus. Many have co-sponsored a House bill that would provide some of those here illegally a chance for citizenship.

But many House Republicans say they remain staunchly opposed to what they consider "amnesty" for people here illegally.

"If we have to pay a few cents more for a head of lettuce at the grocery store in order to protect American workers, we should do so," said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas.